Rude Royal
I rented an apartment during my stay in KL couple of years back together with one other friend. our landlord was a kerabat raja, and a friend of one of my aunts, and a friend to my mum’s friend. she was so soft spoken, pijak semut pon tak mati. but to be fair to her, i cant judge her, i dont know her. maybe i just did judge her… hmm.. but she was very soft spoken and nice, first impression i had during our meeting at her shop in KLCC.
We agreed to the rental, and took her word for it. and the day we signed the agreement, she added another hundred bucks to it. but we signed it anyway coz we liked the place.
She had promised us to put a new cooker. but she did not.
Towards the middle of the tenancy, her son took over. apperently, she had given the apartment to her son. a 29 year old boy now is our landlord.
We then faced a few other problems as my housemate’s dad did a kidney transplant, thus, she decided that she didnt want to stay at the apartment anymore. she (also a royal, but from a different state than the landlord) had to look after her dad. i could understand. we couldnt get any replacements, so she agreed to pay rent till either one of us would find a replacement. it was difficult coz i was stuck in a situation whereby my housemate didnt feel that she ought to pay since she’s no longer staying there, altho her stuff was still there. but i understand her situation. but it certainly wasnt my choice and wasnt my fault. i tried helping her by looking for another housemate but couldnt find any.
I still bank in my share of the rent, while my housemate agreed to bank in her share. but sometimes, she was late. and this landlord of ours had told my mum’s friend, then told my aunt to tell us to pay up. but it wasnt me. but anyway.. what has it got to do with them, these ladies? WHY is it so difficult to deal with us tenants? the landlords have our numbers. WHY must she go through other people? WHY must she tell others and not go straight to us?
The son then took over, and my housemate didnt pay, or forgot to pay her share, so this ‘royal’ took it to his hands and had a locksmith over to change the locks. luckily, at that time my dad was in the apartment. and the locksmith apologised saying that the ‘royal’ asked him to change the locks as the apartment is empty, vacant. is that fair, asking the locksmith to change the lock without informing us?
I paid all the rent and i have proof. every single one of it. i took some responsibility coz the both of us did signed the agreement together. it was just a little bit unfair to me. towards the end of the tenancy, i was seriously affected by all these and it was driving my crazy, drove hardy nuts too!
Tenancy ended in october 2005, i moved out first, somewhere in september and then my housemate. in november, i got married. we then went for our 1 week honeymoon to holland. in december, my sister got married, her nikah, and our reception. in january, i was so buzy with the dutch visa (it was hell) and getting ready to move to holland. hardy left for holland first (not intended but like i said, getting the visa was difficult). i then was hospitalised, infection. two weeks later, my turn to leave malaysia, being 5 weeks pregnant.
I received an sms during those busy december days. in his own words: "zaza, i will bank in your deposit money next week".
The thing is, i just remembered couple of months back that he had not paid in a single cent. i’ve checked with my maybank2u and nothing from him. i know it is late, and so i called but got his machine, and then text him last couple of months..
"hello iznan, this is zaza. i hope you’re doing good, if not great. i’m sorry this is late and long overdue, i’ve moved to holland and just had a baby, and i just remembred. i still have not received the deposit money from you to which you have promised to bank in. can you please do so? thank you"
almost 2 weeks had passed and nothing from him. and so i told my mum about this, and she said, she’ll try and call him for me.
mum spoke nicely to him and this is what he replied:
"WHY THE HELL DO YOU CALL ME AFTER ONE YEAR?"
And believe me there were some very rude remarks that he made to my mum, a person of 30 years older than him.
If he was a man of his words, why didnt he bank in the money as promised? and as someone who is yonger, is that how you talk to someone who is older than you? and not to mention that you are a royal, does that make you superior to all of the human beings on this earth? just because you’re a nephew to one of the sultans, does that makes you the right to speak such a way? or does it mean that you’re a landlord, i’m the tenant, you have the right to be rude?
Bloody hell! i was so crossed! i felt so guilty and so sorry for mum. i blamed myself for this is totally my matter and i dragged her into it.
People would expect that coming out of a royal from my state, johor. yes we have a weird royal family down there with some reputation as well. but bear in mind that not all of them are weird and unfriendly and rude. trust me, i grew up with some of them, i had the priviliged to do gifts for one of them (she is very kind and humble), we did their wedding favors, and mum is closed to most of them, and trust me, they are not all bad!
Funny how people would want to help the ‘royals’, take their sides, even when i’m not in the wrong, even when it’s not their business. funny how they’d willingly help this ‘royal’ of theirs. and now that they have not paid my deposit money, its funny how these people (who previously constantly kept on bugging me with the rent money), now didnt even want to help me in getting my deposit back. they just kept quiet.
Status counts huh? no matter how much money you have, how high up of the corporate ladder you are, how successful and how royal you are, at the end of the day, you’ll have to surrender to God. we will all die one day, and God would judge us the same, regardless whether you are a royal or not.
I would expect to get the full amount since there’s hardly a scratch in that apartment, let alone a nail! but then again, they are royals, they can do whatever, as they pleased.
I dont think i’d ever want to go to kelantan. boycot!
